Friday, August 13, 2010

The Rapids get their first look at the expansion Philadelphia Union and their snake logo tomorrow. Given their location in the nation's first capital and the Revolutionary War ties of their logo lets hope our British coaching staff doesn't try to emulate the slow campaign of General Howe as he took the city in 1777/ Game time tomorrow is a early 2pm. The game will be on KWGN, and look for the small delegation of Rapids fans who made the trip East to support the team!

While the injury report lists Clark as questionable we got the official word today that he tore his ACL last week and is done for the season. Its the same ACL he tore 370 days before he tore it last week. Rough break for him and it puts the team in bad shape. At least we get Casey back. With the news, here's my guess on the lineup:

Pickens

Kimura - Wynne - Baudet - Moor

Larentowicz - Pablo

Cummings - Ballouchy - Smith

Casey

That's pretty close to the 4-5-1 we used earlier this season, with the back line shifted to the left, pushing Earls out and moving Kimura in on the right.

Stat Of The Game: If Pablo plays essentially the whole game (87 minutes) he'll become the all-time team leader in minutes played.

Key To Look For: Team cohesiveness. We're making multiple changes from the team that figured out how to win last week, mainly due to players being injured or returning to injury. Can we pick up where we left off or will it take a while for everyone to find their place?

Prediction:1-1 draw, goal by Conor Casey. While this is an expansion team, its a decent team at home. We'll be playing in the heat of the day, and while we won last week I'm still not confident in our ability to carry any momentum on the road.